The Black Slime Parade
by BrenRome
Summary: My take on the deleted Parade Level.  I own nothing. This is for fan-purpopses only. Please don't sue!


_**Hey, everyone. Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I just broke-up with a girl I was dating and school's been a real pain. I just managed to get this story up, so I don't know when I'll be posting something else. But I'll try to do it as soon as I can. Anyway, this is my take on the deleted Parade Level from the Ghostbusters Video Game. As always, I own nothing. This is for Fan-Purpopses only, so please don't sue! Other than that, enjoy!**_

The Rookie gave a slight scream as he fired the last overload pulse into the Chairman Ghost that had caused The Ghostbusters so much trouble this night. The Chairman gave a groan of pain, and continued screaming, until he dispersed completely. Ray gave a slight smile as this happened.

They had only recruited the Rookie about a few days ago, and already he was holding his ground against big ghosts and demons. It looked like the Rookie was going to get a good raise this weekend. That is, of course, if Venkman 'permitted it.'

"Nicely done, Cadet," Ray said, patting the Rookie on his shoulder.

The Rookie looked at Ray shyly, but gave a little smile.

"Ray..." Egon said, pointing his PKE Meter towards where The Chairman had disappated.

Ray and the Rookie looked ahead, and Ray suddenly changed his expression to a very solemn one. The only thing that hadn't dispersed was the big yellow eye which was just floating around there, silently.

"Oh no..." Ray said softly as the eye suddenly shot upwards until it was out of sight.

"What...uh...what just happened?" Venkman asked, as if it were nothing much.

"We need to go." Ray said, "Now."

...

As soon as The Ghostbusters had climbed the steps and exited the museum, they had found themselves in the New York Streets again. As they exited, the Rookie turned to his left for a second, and then did a double-take staring at something the others were not aware of.

"Where is everyone?" Ray asked, as Egon whipped out his PKE meter.

"PKE valencies are all low." Egon stated as the Rookie began tapping Ray's shoulder repeatedly.

After four times, Ray turned to where the Rookie was pointing and he too understood what was going on.

"Guys, look!" Ray exclaimed.

Peter and Egon turned and saw just a couple of blocks away, was a parade taking place.

"That's right!" Ray said, slapping his head, "They're rehearsing for the Thanksgiving Day Parade today! I forgot about that up until now."

"We need to get there and warn the mayor." Egon stated.

...

After jogging a couple of blocks, the Ghostbusters found the Mayor being escorted to the float he would ride in on during the parade. As the Paranormal team approached him, the mayor looked at them surprised.

"Well!" He laughed, "The Ghostbusters! Did you catch the ghost?"

"Mr. Mayor," Egon stated, "We need to cancel the rehearsal right now."

"What?" The Mayor asked confused.

"We have strong reason to believe that the ghost we were after has been traced here, sir." Ray explained.

"Well I can't just tell everyone to pack up and go home!" The mayor announced.

"Uh..." Peter said, tapping the Mayor's shoulder as everyone looked his way, "I don't think you'll have to."

The sewer lid was starting to shake violently. At that moment, it exploded and the big yellow eye whooshed out from beneath. It hovered in the air for a few minutes before flying straight into one of the floats of a cartoon-animated cat. The Cat's eyes suddenly began glowing yellow, and suddenly, it began moving on it's own. The people who were carrying the float screamed, and began darting as far away from the cat as possible.

At that moment, however, there was only one person approaching the float; Walter Peck. He was now covered in head-to-toe with the positively-charged slime, but was still as mad as hell. Peck wasn't about to let something like a little light show stop him.

"Well..." He said, as the float began flying towards him, "Another electronic light show, I see. Well, you frauds; here it is for the last time: I DON'T BELIEVE IN..."

At that moment, the float hovered above him, and chucked a mouth-load of black slime on him when its mouth was in the right position. Peck screamed as he became showered in the substance, which would require a million showers to stop him from smelling like a New Jersey dump and the East River combined together.

As soon as the float had passed over him, though, Peck suddenly felt his feet rise above the ground. Double-checking, Peck found he WAS floating, and he screamed like a little girl, flying against his will after the Cat Float.

"Well there's something you don't see every day." Peter quipped, after the Float and Peck had flown out of sight.

"We need to go after him." Egon stated.

"Aw, C'mon, Egon," Peter whined, "How often do kids get a chance to see a bureaucrat blow through the sky?"

"We're gonna need Peck unfortunately if we still want our license." Ray replied, which resulted in a groan from Peter.

"Wait!" Egon hushed, "Do you hear something?"

Everyone stopped and listened. Slowly, they heard the faint noise of what sounded like drums playing. But the band had already fled. Egon whipped out the PKE Meter which began flashing quickly as the sounds got closer.

"Oh no..." Egon groaned.

At that moment, the sound came into view and they could see what it was. It was a group of Marching Band ghosts. Each carrying drums, but beating them with sticks that had spiked skull heads attached to the end. As soon as the Ghosts saw the Busters, they began throwing the spiky sticks at them.

Reacting on cue, the Busters dodged them, and began blasting their streams at the ghosts. However, Egon tuned in his radio to Winston.

"WINSTON!" He screamed over the noise, "IF YOU'RE THERE, THIS WOULD BE AN EXTRAORDINARILY GOOD TIME TO BRING THE ECTO-1 NEARBY THE MUSEUM NOW!"

"I AGREE!" Ray shouted, putting the capture stream on one of the band ghosts.

...

In a few moments, the Ghostbusters had the entire marching band accounted for.

"Good work, fellas!" The mayor announced, coming out from his hiding place.

"Don't thank us yet," Ray said, "We still have one BIG ghost to capture."

Just then, they heard the wailing sounds of the Ecto-1, as it suddenly pulled up and Winston lowered the window.

"Hey, guys," He quipped, "Need a lift?"

Ray, The Rookie, and Peter got in the Car, but Egon opted to stay outside.

"I'll escort the mayor to City Hall." Egon explained.

"Okay," Winston nodded, "Meet up back at the firehouse?"

"Sounds fair...dude."

Everyone looked at Egon in shock and silence. Egon continued to stand there casually before he realized what he said, and coughed into his fist.

"Sorry," He apologized, "I'm still working on that experiment with slang."

Venkman shook his head as Winston turned the Ecto-1 around and headed after where the float had gone.

...

"If my calculations are correct," Ray explained as he read his PKE, "The float's heading right back to the firehouse!"

He pressed the radio to the firehouse.

"Janine!" He called.

"Yes, Ray?" Janine asked.

"You might wanna grab a proton pack."

"Why?" Janine asked.

There was a moment of silence before she spoke again.

"Okay..." She said a bit freaked out.

With that, Ray hung up. As soon as he did, though, the Ecto-1 suddenly jeered to the right. It almost hit another car, but Winston turned the wheel hard and they just barely missed it.

"What the hell was that?" Venkman demanded.

Ray and the Rookie pulled down the windows behind them, and saw a swarm of ghosts following the Ecto-1.

"We have some company!" Ray yelled.

"We'll never catch up to the float with these guys distracting us!" Winston declared.

"Unless..." Ray said, thinking, "One of us is going to have to go up on the roof and stop them.

All eyes turned to the Rookie. The Rookie looked around, to see if there was something wrong, before he got it. He sunk back into his seat a bit, hopefully so that he'd be completely in there, and nobody would notice him.

...

Eventually, though, the Rookie got up on the roof steadying his feat, so that he wouldn't fall off the Ecto-1. Luckily, he managed to keep his balance pretty good, and eventually, take out all the ghosts.

"GREAT WORK, ROOK!" Ray called, once the Rookie had slammed the last ghost into the Super Slammer.

"Yes." Peter laughed, sarcastically, "Putting your own life on the line, rather than us doing it ourselves."

At that moment, though, the Busters were now approaching one of the floats. However, before the Rookie could even start to get back into the car, he heard a familiar screaming as Peck shot past him, literally over his head. This caused the Rookie to loose his footing, and he fell to the left of the car next to the float.

"ROOK!" Ray called.

Before the Rookie could hit the street, though, his hand managed to catch the end of the float. Using all his strength, the Rookie managed to pull himself against the wind, and roll himself onto the float safely. As soon as he was on, however, the float sped up, leaving Ecto-1 WAY far behind.

"I can't catch up!" The Rookie heard Winston's voice call from the walkie-talkie.

"Sorry, Cadet!" Ray explained, "It looks like you've gotta stop this float yourself."

The Rookie sighed, and then heard another sound. Instantly, another marching band ghost shot right towards him.

Giving a little scream, the Rookie turned on his regular neutrona-wand setting, and blasted the ghost with a good proton stream.

...

After a few good encounters with some more marching band ghosts, the Rookie had managed to jump from float-to-float and reach the last one; The Santa Claus Float. In front of him, was the chairman-eyeball-possessed-cat float. Looking up to his right, the Rookie saw Walter Peck, still coated in black slime, flying around scared.

The Rookie decided 'What the hell,' and switched on his slime-blower, neutralizing the slime on Peck. The former EPA agent fell to the ground with a thud, and then disappeared from sight. It was at this moment, that the Parade Float suddenly noticed the Rookie and didn't seem too happy with him rescuing Peck.

"ROOK!" Ray's voice called, "I have an idea! If that float was able to expunge black slime, there's a good chance that he's full of it. Literally! You know what to do!"

The rookie nodded and slimed the float right in it's mouth. The float screamed, and then literally breathed fire from there. Fortunately, the Rookie managed to dodge at the last minute.

So the Rookie continued blasting the mouth with the positively-charged slime, while avoiding the float's flame attacks. Eventually, after the Rookie had been sliming the float for what seemed like hours, the float's eyes suddenly went wide.

Then, the Float expanded as if someone had just continued to fill the float with air. The Float screamed in pain, and eventually exploded into a whole giant glob of Black Slime. The Rookie screamed as he was hit face-first with the slime, and then suddenly, he felt the float he was on stop.

Looking ahead of him, he saw the team firehouse, and sighed relief that he had just managed to save Dr. Selwyn and Janine just barely. As soon as he thought of that, he was pulled out of his thoughts by a horn honking. Looking to his right, he saw the Ecto-1, literally stopped from going anywhere by the float he was on.

"Hey!" Venkman called sarcastically, as Egon came running down the street to the left of the firehouse, "Can you move this? This ain't a garage, y'know!"

The Veteran Ghostbusters got out of the Ecto-1, and inspected the float's remains.

"Fantastic work!" Ray announced, "You did it!"

"That's the last one!" A familiar voice announced.

The Ghostbusters turned to see Peck walking towards them, covered in head-to-toe in slime, while sporting a nasty black eye. Peck continued to rant about how he was through being their liaison and how he was going to shut them down forever, while the Rookie just went into the firehouse. He didn't need to hear it from Peck. He had just saved his life, (more or less under the circumstances,) and yet that man was just going on about making their lives a living hell.

As he entered the firehouse, he noticed Janine, holding a neutrona-wand towards the door, but put it away when she saw the Rookie. The Rookie looked over to the TV and saw Dr. Selwyn watching the news. She too saw The Rookie and looked at him amazed.

"I'm guessing by the black slime and such that you guys took care of that float I saw on TV, but that the others are going to walk in and tell me bad news." Janine stated, as the Rookie just nodded, nonchalantly.

But suddenly, he was taken by surprise as Dr. Selwyn instantly threw herself onto him, hugging him tremendously as if he were the only family member she had left.

"Oh thank god!" She exclaimed, "I saw you on the news! I was so worried that you and the others were..."

The Rookie pulled away and gave her a confused look. Ilyssa just brushed her hair and looked him in the eyes before continuing.

"I just realized how much of real heroes you guys are." She said, softly, leaning in closer to the Rookie, making him sweat bullets, "Especially you. The way you saved me from Gozer, how you fought off Stay Puft, how you chased after me in the museum..."

She stopped and gave the Rookie a light kiss on the cheek.

"I guess I just want to say thank you." She whispered.

She then left to use the bathroom, leaving the Rookie there, frozen solid, yet blushing hard. Janine looked up from her magazine and noticed this.

"Uh...Kid?" Janine called, "You all right."

The Rookie did not respond, but fell to the ground, in the position that he had been standing in. As soon as he was out, the Ghostbusters who had been dealing with Peck, came in and noticed the Rookie on the ground.

"What's up with him?" Venkman asked casually, "Is he doing some kind of drug I don't know about."

Janine figured it would be best to keep the secret of Ilyssa and the Rookie a secret, least incur the 'Wrath of Dr. Peter Venkman.' Janine just shrugged as if she just didn't notice until now.

"I guess it's that he worked up a real storm out there, Docta Venkman." She responded.

"Makes sense," Egon said, rubbing his chin, "He did get saturated with a heavy dose of black slime...we should help him into bed. (Maybe even get a sample while we're at it.)"

Ray took the Rookie's feet while Egon took the Rookie's arms, and the two began moving him upstairs for a well-deserved rest.


End file.
